Making Experience Matter

Undoubtedly one of the most inspiring 3D printing projects we have seen recently is the ‘Magic Arms’ designed by Nemours and Alfred I du Pont Hospital. A project that helps children suffering from musculoskeletal disabilities who need upper body support, something we highlighted in our recent ExpoTalk about the Designs of the Year 2013. Similarly targeted for children but, for more educational interaction purposes, the Free Universal Construction Kit aims to allow children to connect join their lego-esque toys together through 3d printed connecting pieces. The Free Universal Construction Kit offers adapters between Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik, Gears! Gears! Gears!, K’Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks), Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Zome, and Zoob and is available open source from the internet. A fascinating proposal that allows for children to create and play using previously non-connecting pieces. The possibilities for a similar concept for car pieces or house tools are endless.

On a more speculative and playful tip, the Kiosk 2.0 by Unfold alludes to the possibility of 3d printing disposable and take-away items from a mobile stall. Resembling a New York-style hot dog street vender, the Kiosk 2.0 is equipped with a 3D scanner (from Polhemus) and a 3D printer (from Bits from Bytes) and offers services to passers by. The idea behind the kiosk was to highlight the possibilities of open sourcing technology, as with the Free Universal Construction Kit, and bringing that technology to communities who might not necessarily have access to it. All in all, two out of the box ideas with endless possibilities.

Although the winners are not announced for the Designs of the Year until the 17th April, the public are open to have a close up of the nominated projects at the Design Museum in London from the 20th March. There are nominations for architecture, fashion, product, graphic and interaction design. From a brightly coloured kilometre long public park that winds it's way through Copenhagen by Nordic architects BIG, Topotek1 and Superflex to the iconic Olympic torch by British design duo Barber Osgerby, there is plenty to catch the eye.

Of particular interest to Expology were some personable projects that tackled humanity needs. The Child Vision glasses designed by Goodwin Hartshorn and The Centre for Vision in the Developing World for example. The prescription glasses can be adjusted by injecting a fluid into the lenses that extends the life of the glasses so that a child can keep them as they grow older or require different strength lenses. Another inspiring example of interaction design for change was the 3D printed Exoskeleton ‘Magic Arms’ designed by Nemours and Alfred I du Pont Hospital. The 'Magic Arms' is 3D printed to fit each individual child suffering form musculoskeletal disabilities who need upper body support. There were also notable commercial use interactive nominations such as the Windows Phone 8 interface. The exhibition is open until the 7th July.

The central piece of the Svanhovd Bear Centre in Passvik is a 'sleeping' bear that you can scan to get information about the different parts and functions of its body.

The 1:1 scale animal has RFID tags planted underneath it´s thick fur hair at various key points so that users have to physically 'mine sweep' the bear's body to discover facts and learn more about the animal. The scanning device reads the information from the hidden implanted tag and sends the data to a screen stationed next to the bear for users to read what they have discovered. An innovative and playful solution to a technology that can typically just be used to sign in or register at a screen or station. Below is a video that goes into more details about how RFID senses space and delivers data.

http://youtu.be/RrgjufJhmwk?hd=1
Google Web Lab consists of five Chrome Experiment installations that bring the internet to life and aim to inspire online and offline visitors about the possibilities of the web. The installations (Universal Orchestra, Teleporter, Sketchbots, Data Tracer, Lab Tag Explorer) are part of a year-long public exhibition at the London Science Museum and can be interacted with by anyone, anywhere. Worldwide visitors both on and offline are able to make music with people across the world; launch information into cyberspace and see where images come from on the web live; watch their portrait being processed, translated, and then drawn in sand by a robot; and travel instantly to far away places all over the world.

The exhibition was particularly interesting to Expology due to our experiences creating similar online and offline user interactions at Science Museums and Learning Centers. While the Web Lab used a 'Lab Tag' to interact with exhibits (scanning and inserting into machines for data transmission), Expology has mostly been working with RFID technology to connect users online and offline. You can view the results of Expology's use of RFID technology at Inspiria Science Center in Sarpsborg for example. Google Web Lab was designed by MAP, the new studio of designersBarberOsgerby, alongside their Sister company Universal Design Studio and is open to the public until the 20th June 2013.

Using film clips, photography, physical models, interactive displays, sporting equipment and timelines - ´Designed to Win`communicates the importance of the design behind sport. The exhibition, curated by Alex Newson at the Design Museum, is a playful insight into the serious world of objects designed to win races, championships and in the case of the Olympics - medals.

Walking toward the exhibition, the stairwells are lined with silhouettes of some of the tallest and smallest athletes to have walked the earth, Chinese basketball player Ming Ming grabbing particular attention for his astounding height. Entering into the main room, visitors walk through a hollow bow of unfinished bamboo material. The gallery spaces, lined up alongside the bamboo spine, are painted dark to contrast with fluorescent graphic highlights. Interesting and accessible to all age groups, ´Designed to Win` gives a fun and informative insight into the amount of design and thought behind some of sports most iconic moments. The exhibition runs at the Design Museum until November 18th, we recommend you give it a visit if you are in the London area.

Engineerium will provide a meeting place for the oil and gas industry, educational institutions and general public. At Engineerium there will be learning experiences for students, employees and business partners.

Meet engineers from Aker Solutions. Participate in an energy production game. Create a personal innovative profile. Calculate your own HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) risk profile. Learn about Norwegian oil and gas technologies on a global market. Experiment with natural science phenomena and explore how the oil and gas industry relate to them. Learn about the history of Aker Solutions and explore different environmental perspectives on the oil and gas industry.

Expology is Aker Solutions' partner in content development, design and production of Engineerium exhibits.